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CBI challenges Sajjan`s acquittal in anti-Sikh riots case
New Delhi, July 11: The CBI today challenged the acquittal of senior Delhi Congress leader and former MP Sajjan Kumar and nine others in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which he had allegedly led a mob that killed and looted Sikhs here.
New Delhi, July 11: The CBI today challenged the acquittal of senior Delhi Congress leader and former MP Sajjan Kumar and nine others in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which he had allegedly led a mob that killed and looted Sikhs here.
A division bench of Justice Usha Mehra and Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, which condoned the delay in filing the appeal against the acquittal order, summoned trial court records and posted the matter for August 19.
Appearing for the CBI, additional solicitor general K K Sud submitted before the bench that the trial court had erred in acquitting the accused as it considered the statements of prosecution witnesses before various inquiry commissions. Section 6 of the Commission of Inquiry Act prohibits the use of statements made before it in any other proceeding, Sud said and stressed that the scope of a commission's inquiry is restricted to its terms of reference and hence a statement by a witness before it may not be relevant for a criminal trial.
Eight riot victims and the Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee filed separate appeals against the acquittal through their counsel Satinder S Gulati. These appeals have been transferred by Justice J D Kapoor to the division bench. Additional sessions judge Manju Goel had on December 23 last acquitted Kumar in the case on the ground that CBI failed to prove charges that he actually led the mob which killed about 50 Sikhs in an outer Delhi area following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
CBI had registered the case against Kumar on a complaint by one Anwar Kaur, who had lost her husband in the riots. But surprisingly, she contradicted her own statements during the trial leading to the acquittal of the accused.
Kumar had been charged with rioting, spreading communal disharmony, instigating the mob to murder and loot the Sikhs.
Besides Kumar, those acquitted in the case were Jai Kishan (former Congress MLA), Udal Singh, Brahma Nand Gupta, Shishram, Jai Bhagwan Gupta, Peeria Ram, Hanuman Prasad, Satyaveer Singh and Mahender Singh Yadav.
Three other accused in the case Nathu Pradhan, Islam and Rajendra Singh died during the trial. Bureau Report
Appearing for the CBI, additional solicitor general K K Sud submitted before the bench that the trial court had erred in acquitting the accused as it considered the statements of prosecution witnesses before various inquiry commissions. Section 6 of the Commission of Inquiry Act prohibits the use of statements made before it in any other proceeding, Sud said and stressed that the scope of a commission's inquiry is restricted to its terms of reference and hence a statement by a witness before it may not be relevant for a criminal trial.
Eight riot victims and the Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee filed separate appeals against the acquittal through their counsel Satinder S Gulati. These appeals have been transferred by Justice J D Kapoor to the division bench. Additional sessions judge Manju Goel had on December 23 last acquitted Kumar in the case on the ground that CBI failed to prove charges that he actually led the mob which killed about 50 Sikhs in an outer Delhi area following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.
CBI had registered the case against Kumar on a complaint by one Anwar Kaur, who had lost her husband in the riots. But surprisingly, she contradicted her own statements during the trial leading to the acquittal of the accused.
Kumar had been charged with rioting, spreading communal disharmony, instigating the mob to murder and loot the Sikhs.
Besides Kumar, those acquitted in the case were Jai Kishan (former Congress MLA), Udal Singh, Brahma Nand Gupta, Shishram, Jai Bhagwan Gupta, Peeria Ram, Hanuman Prasad, Satyaveer Singh and Mahender Singh Yadav.
Three other accused in the case Nathu Pradhan, Islam and Rajendra Singh died during the trial. Bureau Report